Friday, March 7, 2008

A Rite of Passage

Today, I have become a man.

Well, technically, I’ve been a man for 38 years (or at least male), not counting that year when everyone called me Susan.

Actually, I should state that today I have become a man on the Internet. No, I did not have sex with my computer (it’s full of metal and electricity, two things that are traditionally bad for your privates).

I received the Nigerian Letter scam mail.

This is the one where the guy has several million dollars that he can’t reach, but through complicated financial magic involving you giving him several thousand dollars, he will in return give you a couple million. This is actually a very old scam that has been updated for the internet. It’s known as an ‘advance-fee fraud’ and variants include the Spanish Prisoner.

I’ve read about it. I’ve known people who’ve seen it, but I’ve never actually received it until now.

A plateau has been reached. An apex achieved. A peak peaked. A very tall thing has been trod upon. I can now go on with my life, secure in the knowledge that someone thought that I had enough money to be worthy of scamming.

The joke’s on them. I’ve got a ’93 pickup, a ’94 cat, and a computer that won’t play Call of Duty 4.

2 comments:

Animayhem
said...

My first was sent to me 9/14 just a few days after 9/11, we were all in shock at that point, so my knee-jerk reaction was, Holy crap Terrorists are trying to use me to get money into the US. So I forwarded the Email to the FBI. Later i read about the scam and felt a bit like a tool, but I bet the sender was surprised when the FBI contacted him, lol. (If they did, I like to think they did.)